Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-01-15
CHOW OLD ART THOU?"
The Meeting Between Jacob and Pharoah
in the most Brilliant City on Earth.
No Hostility Between the Gospel and the
Merrimsnts and Festivities Of Life.
"A Happy New Year to Those Whose Faces
are Turned Heayenward.
DIR. rALMAsE's NEW YEAR SERMON.

BRooxLYN, Jan. 2.-This morning at
the Tabernacle DR.. Talmage expound-
ed some passages Of Scripture concern
ing the longevity Of the patriarchs.
His text was Genesis, ch. AZ, v. 8:
s.How cid art thouP"
The preasher said, The Egyptian
capital was the focus Of tho worlds
wealth. In ships and barges, there had
been brought to it from India franklin
censc, and cinnamon, and ivory, and
diamonds; from the north, marble and
iron; from Syria, purple and silk; from
Greece, some Of the finest horses of the
world. and some of the most brilliant
chariots; and from all the earth that
which could best please the eye, and
charm the ear, and crafty the taste.
There were temples aflame with red
sandstone, entered by the gateways
that were guarded by pillars bewilder-
ing with hieroglyphics, and wound
with braxen serpents, and adorned with
winged creatures-their eyes, and
soaks, and pinions glittering with
precious stones. There were marble
.solumns blooming into white flower
beds; there were stone pillars, at the
rtsp bursting into the shape of the lotus
when in full bloom. Along the avenues,
lined with
SPHINX, n FAME, AND oBELIsK,
there were princes who came in gor-
geously-upholstsred palanquin, carried
hy servants in scarlet, or
else were drawn by vehicles, the
snow-white horses, golden-bitted and
six abreast. dashing at full run. There
were fountains from stone-wreathed
vase climbing the ladders of the light.
You would hear a bolt shove, and a
door of brass would open like n flash
OF the sun. The surrounding gardens
were saturated with odors that mount
ed the terrace, and dripped from the
aFbors and burned their incense in the
Egyptian noon. On floors of mosaic
sale glories of Pharaoh were spelled out
in letters of porphyry, and beryl, and
dame. There were ornaments twisted
from the wood of tamarisk, embossed
with silver breaking into foam. There
were footstools made out of a single
precious stone. There were beds fash
tened out OF a crouched lion in bronze.
There were chairs spotted with the
sleek hides of leopards. There were
sofas footed with the claws of wild
beasts. and armed with the beaks of
} birds. As You stand on the level
beach of the sea on a summer day,
an. look either way, and there are
miles of breakers, white with the
ocean foam. dashing s~horeward; so it
seemed as if the sea Of the worlds
pemp and wealth in the Egyptian cap
itaa for miles and miles flung itself up
into white breakers Of marble temple,
E~raausoleum, and obelisk.
1t was to this capital and the palace
of Pharaoh that jacob, the plain shep-
herd, came to meet his son Joseph,
who had become prime minister in the
royal apartment. Pharaoh and Jacob
meet.
DIGNITY AND RUsTICITY,
rAe grasefulness Of the court and the
plain manner of the field. The king
wanting to make the old countryman
n ease, and seeing how white his
beard is and how feeble his step, looks
familiarly into his face, and says to
the aged man: ''How old art thoup'
Might before last the gate of eternity
opened to let in, amid the great throng
of departed centuries, the soul OF the
diving Under the twelfth stroke
Of She hammer OF the city clock, the
ypatriarca fell deao. and the stars
of the night were the funeral torches.
IL is most fortunate that on this road
of life there are SO many milestones, on
which We can read just how fast we
ascs going towards the journeys end.
4 feed that it is not an inappropriate
question that l ask, to-day, when | look
into your faces, and say, as Pharaoh
did TO Jacob, the patriarch: "How old
art thoup"
There are many who estimate their
Life by mere worldly qualification.
When Lord Dundas was wished a happy
New Year, he said: at will have to
be happier than the past, for ! hadn't
on happy moment in all the twelve
Menths that have gone But that has
net been the experience of most of Us.
We have found that though the world
N blasted with sin, it is a very bright
sad beautiful place to reside in We
have had joys innumerable. There is
mo- hostility between the Gospel and the
instruments and the festivities of life.
1 do not think that we fully enough
appreciate the worldly pleasures God